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History of the British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH) Formerly the Community Paediatric Group (CPG)

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History of the British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH) Formerly the Community Paediatric Group (CPG) History of the British Association for Community Child Health History of the British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH) formerly the Community Paediatric Group (CPG) Introduction BACCH is the largest specialty group within the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and this chapter reviews the origins of BACCH and its influence both within the College and on the development of community child health services for families throughout the UK. Central to the development of community child health services has been the development of leadership and clinical expertise through the appointment of Consultant Paediatricians in Community Child Health (CPCCH) and then the development of subspecialty interests within community child health, such as disability, public health, audiology, child protection and child mental health, in order to meet the ever changing morbidity in childhood. BACCH continues to advocate for family centred care provided in local communities, promoting health using a life course approach and service development based on pathways, delivered by team working in networks which strive for continuous quality improvement in experience and outcomes. To achieve this BACCH works closely with other professional groups within health and other agencies and with the RCPCH. History The history of BACCH must be viewed simultaneously alongside the position of children in society and changes in childhood morbidity, the wider socio-political changes of the late 20th century, particularly reorganisation of the National Health Service (NHS), with more community-based service provision coupled and newly available health interventions. The roots of Community Child Health started with public health interventions of the late 19th century and with a medical and nursing workforce which expanded throughout the mid-20th-century with a peak in the 50s and 60s. This workforce was employed by Local Authorities, often led by community medicine specialists and it was not until the 1974 reorganisation that this workforce joined the NHS. The history of BACCH is essentially the story of how the work of this community child health workforce evolved and became integrated into the NHS and this chapter is presented in three decades. Page 1 of 6 History of the British Association for Community Child Health 1976-1985 the beginnings The publication in 1976 of "Fit for the Future" the Report of the Committee on Child Health Services chaired by Donald Court was the seminal point in the development of Community Child Health services as we know them today. The report acknowledged the health gains made by children over the previous century but looked to the future and recommended improved community-based, integrated care, led by paediatricians, particularly for children with long-term conditions. The origins/initiation of the British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH) were recorded as a request from John Davies, then chair of the Academic Board of the British Paediatric Association requesting that the BPA "wanted to have contact with, and at times advice from, a group of community paediatricians. Such a group would be associated, but not part of the BPA". Frank Bamford took this forward during the BPA meeting in Harrogate in April 1974 when he met with a small group of like-minded paediatricians to propose the "British Association of Community Paediatrics" whose first formal meeting was on 23 October 1974. The stated purpose of the group was "to contribute to the improvement in the care of all children, to promote scientific study of clinical community paediatrics, to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, information and ideas among its members and to disseminate knowledge of clinical community paediatrics" (the word children includes adolescents). However, the British Paediatric Association objected to the title of "British Association of Community Paediatrics" and after protracted discussions over two years, the name was amended to the Community Paediatric Group and finally adopted on 11 November 1976. The group remained independent of the BPA until 1984 when the BPA formally recognised the CPG by setting up a BPA Liaison Group "to consider issues relating to community paediatrics". During this first decade, the Community Paediatric Group spent considerable time defining the role and duties of a consultant paediatrician in community child health and lobbying the BPA to include community child health as a legitimate specialty within paediatrics. While the BPA paper "Paediatric manpower: towards the 21st century" in 1984 acknowledged roles of consultant community paediatricians, they also assumed these consultants would contribute to the acute hospital call rota, thus effectively transferring community resources into hospital settings. The other problem revolved around the fact that the majority of doctors (CMO's and SCMOs) working in community settings with children often had no formal postgraduate qualifications other than experience and on-the-job training. The BPA as the "governing body" for the education and training of paediatricians did not feel these doctors were "paediatricians" and as the majority were not members of the BPA they did not feel responsible for their education and training. The CPG repeatedly described the role of a Consultant Paediatrician in Community Child Health (CPCCH) in the early 80s but it was not until the Child Health Forum produced a report in 1988, linked to the BPA Census, which identified 47 CPCCH (working more than five sessions a week in community child health) recommended one CPCCH per district and recognised that further expansion would be required in the future, that the BPA acknowledged the need for workforce planning and formal training programmes for these consultants. 1985-1994 development of community child health Having proved the need for CPCCH the Joint Committee on Higher Medical Training (JCHMT) of the Royal College of Physicians (London) produced a model training programme which in 1985 enabled the development of senior registrar training posts. The mismatch between people in training and the numbers of senior doctors retiring from established community child health departments soon became apparent. The CPG responded by producing a number of workforce planning documents throughout this decade arguing for an expansion of both consultant numbers and training programmes. Page 2 of 6 History of the British Association for Community Child Health One particular area of concern was of public health. After lobbying the BPA and Faculty of Community Medicine a joint working party was formed to examine the interface between public health and child health. The outcome was a paper entitled Working “Together for Tomorrows Children” in 1998 which helpfully defined the needs of local populations and the roles and responsibilities of each professional group. 1989 saw the publication of the first of the “Hall reports” (Health for All Children) covering preschool child health surveillance. This was one of the earliest reports to apply evidence-based medicine approaches to clinical services to create a national framework for preschool surveillance. The initial report focused on the screening components within child health surveillance and acknowledged that the evidence-base for many of surveillance and promotion activities was lacking. The result was that child health surveillance was cut back to the core of what was considered essential. From the perspective of community child health services this was the start of a major evolutionary process from a comprehensive public health orientated, whole population service delivered by a combined workforce of largely clinical medical officers, health visitors and school nurses, to a secondary care community child health service focusing on long-term conditions and vulnerable families, delivered by consultant paediatricians, staff and associate grade specialists and increasingly trainees. All the routine surveillance and health promotion would eventually transfer to primary care teams, and all the Local Authority specialist services largely integrated into hospital-based care, for example orthopaedics. The acceptance and endorsement of the role of consultant leadership within community child health services led to the transition of the Community Paediatric Group into the British Association for Community Child Health in 1992. The change of name (‘for child health’) was a deliberate emphasis to focus on improving child health rather than representing the interests of paediatricians (‘of community paediatricians’) or a focus on disease (‘of community paediatrics’). The reasons for the change of name eventually influenced the name and focus of the BPA as it transitioned to later become the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health thanks to the influence of David Baum, who had been the Chair of BACCH before becoming President of RCPCH. One of the first publications of BACCH produced was a detailed syllabus of training, based on knowledge and skills, to guide the expansion and training of senior registrars in community child health. BACCH also produced a number of workforce planning documents indicating the number of senior registrars required to replace retiring Senior Clinical Medical Officers (SCMOs). This initiated a prolonged regrading process of SCMOs (Child Health) into CPCCH posts. The 1990 NHS and Community Care Act introduced of the NHS internal market with GP fundholders and created considerable anxiety for those providing services
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